Oh dear, gotta agree with most of you here on this one. I dunno much about Lindelof, but I LOST interest in Lost (pun intended) after only a few episodes. And now it appears there's no Ridley for the prequel either, can it get any worse!! Well, let's just hope FOX restrain themselves from screwing this up by bringing in some AvP fanboy to make it. Predators, from an original perspective, was bad enough. Yes, I know I said I like the Pred movie, and I still do, but we all know what it was based on and great directors just dont copy other peoples stuff like Rodriguez did the original. As for where the Alien Prequel goes from here, maybe Renny Harlin could be approached. He's a fantastic director, him and Scott are good friends I believe and he has been linked to Alien films (Alien3) in the past. But please no more Strauss Bros/Paul Andersson crap at the very least ......PPPLLLEEAASSEEE!!

i just don't understand what's so hard for Ridley to understand. people don't like his movies THAT much for him to continue making period pieces!!! STOP and go back to the series that made you familiar in the first place! what's so effing hard about that?!

scott free is producing... who said ridley scott wouldn't direct? right, no one... sounds more like scott and lindelof seemed to have a similar opinion on where the story should go - which is a good sign. reworking a script doesn't necessarily mean that the movie will turn out to be BS. so far this is far from being the mess that fox did with alien³, so don't panic...

in fact this might even be a good sign that they won't ruin the mystery behind the space jockeys - lost wasn't really a straight forward story

Ridley Scott not directing the Alien Prequel is just a rumour, fueled by the fact he hasn't actually signed on the dotted line yet. It's well known he has a number of projects in the pipeline, to my knowledge, he's never confirmed he was directing, only that he was involved in the project. Until Scott says otherwise, it does look like he may only producing the movie, we'll just have to see.

Well... Everyone here seems pretty upset. Not everyone, obviously, but still. I have to say that I flinched at the words "free-standing science fiction film". I understand if they want to break away from the (IMO) dead-milked storyline, but I'd hate to see them take the xenos in a completely new direction. I am, however, happy that things are rolling once more. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

It is just like FOX to pull a cheesy TV writer out of their arsenal of visionless drones and let them write an Alien film. They did the same thing when they hired Joss Whedon out of his duties on Buffy The Vampire Slayer for Alien Resurrection. Hopefully Ridley will still be able to make something respectable out of this mess...he is beginning to be the only positive thing about the prequel.

Mr. Clemens

Ridley always said he'd return to Alien if The Script Was Good. When he announced his return to Alien, I assumed it was because The Script Was Good. The announcement that they're bringing in new writers to rework it tells me simply that The Script Is Not Good. Ergo, if The Script Is Not Good, we may well lose Ridley. And if that happens, what's the point, really? Have Lindelof and Spaihts take their script, design a brand-new monster, and start from square one. Hell, that might even be enjoyable. But please, for the love of god, every Alien sequel has been a little bit not-as-good as the one that came before it... don't embarrass the legacy any further!